Category: Uncategorized
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Businesses and social justice
Why do businesses capitulate to popular social demands? That’s a very good question, but I don’t think the fellow who tries to address that question in this video quite understands business, and the motivations at work, probably because he’s an academic. As someone who has actually owned and run a business for over a…
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Holding reality hostage
How weird to define someone in terms of what they aren’t. My dad is a doctor and has been told by his hospital system they’re not supposed to say “women” any more. He also says that his nurses are enraged by it. One obvious problem with this is that it’s going to feed enormous resentment…
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The attraction of unhappiness
People radically underestimate the attractiveness of unhappiness. Until you’ve seen a close friend or relative who has genuinely and willingly given themselves to it, it’s hard to really believe in it. There’s a strangely compelling allure to the negative emotions. It is a way of getting along in the world. We think we dislike negative…
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Tradition
Tradition is about learning to apply love and fear to their proper objects, and passing on that knowledge. And it’s not that easy a thing to figure out. Knowing which things are most loveable, what will genuinely benefit us on the deepest and widest timescale, and which are most fearful, which we should…
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Unpacking “hate speech”
In response to the case of an article by an evolutionary biologist that referenced the difference in strength levels between the men and women being censored by Instagram as “hate speech”. People should never have generated the category of “hate speech”. It’s such a weird concept. Hate is an emotion, and we aren’t generally well…
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Tragedy is living
Vulnerability is a precondition of identity Limitation is a precondition of story Confinement is a precondition of a game Removal of these negative preconditions, freedom from them, removes their consequents from our lives. These truths are tragic, but not evil. If we wish to play the game, if we wish to have a story, if…
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Christianity and moral skepticism
I recently remarked to my wife that most of what people take for their morals are really just the product of their circumstances and the demands placed on them. What people value depends on the necessity or luxury to being able to value them, and so they vary according to the situation. So most people…
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Fear, rebellion, and virtue
Can you make people better by force and fear? A response to John McWhorter’s anger about a writer for the NYT being fired just for referring to the N word during a discussion. Not using it, referring to it. I’ve always had a rebellious streak. When I was told I couldn’t drop the flag during…
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ESGs and their critics
Are ESG’s silly or wrong somehow? In a market economy people are free to pursue and place value on whatever they choose to, including long term structural goals at the expense of short term maximal gains. People have the right to be complicated and value things other than sheer volume of profits. Heck, I didn’t…
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Intellectual generosity
I love John McWhorter. There’s something just deeply attractive and loveable about that man. Having said that, John MacWhorter suffers from one enormous flaw. And it’s a flaw for which he is to be admired. He judges the world by giving other people the same credit he would to himself. It’s noble, it’s…
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